GPU Effective Clock Tanks Under Load

Posted October 5, 2022

Hi guys,

Not sure if anyone can help but after installing FarCry 5 on my bedroom PC for my girlfriend to play, I noticed some serious performance issues after a few minutes of game time.

The system is a few years old at its heart with an 8700k at 5Ghz but its got a half decent 2080ti and its all custom loop water cooled with my CPU and GPU temps rarely exceeding 60ish degrees C under normal gaming conditions although I did see the 'Hot Spot' temp reporting 109C.

After a little bit of surface troubleshooting, I noticed (in HWInfo) that when my GPU Core Load crept up and went over about 70% utilisation, my 'Effective Core Clock' dropped from about 1350Mhz down to 300Mhz. All other reported clocks speeds appear to remain the same.

While it looks like I'm going to need to pull my system apart, clean the loop and reseat the GPU block and reapply pads and paste, I just thought I'd check in here first to see if this looks like the right course of action.

GPU running at stock BTW.

Thanks

Chris

Living Room PC - Lian-Li O11 XL Evo - MSI X870 Tomahawk Mobo - AMD 9800X3D - 32GB DDR5 Ram - RTX 4090 - 2TB Samsung 990Pro NVMe - Antec 1200w PSU - Dual Custom Loop Cooling - GPU cooled with EK Quantum Surface S240 + EK Quantum Surface P360M X-Flow Rads - CPU cooled with EK Quantum Surface X360M Rad

Bedroom PC - Hyte Y60 - Intel Core i5 13600k - MSI Pro-A Wifi Z790 Mobo DDR5 - 32GB Ram - RTX 5070ti - 1TB Samsung 990Pro NVMe - Corsair HX1200i PSU - CPU + GPU cooled with Hyte Y60 Corner Distro Plate - EK Coolstream S120 + EK Quantum Surface S360 + EK Quantum Surface X240M

Extension PC - Lian Li o11 Dynamic - Intel Core i9 9900k - MSI Meg Ace Z390 Mobo - 16GB Ram - RTX 3080ti - 256GB Samsung NVMe - Corsair AX850 PSU - CPU + GPU cooled with dual EKWB 360 Rads + G1 side EKWB distro plate.

Office PC - Thermaltake Tower 100 - Intel Core i7 8086K - Gbyte Z390 I Aorus Pro Wifi Mobo - 16GB Ram - iGPU - 256GB Samsung NVMe - EVGA B5 850W PSU - CPU cooled with dual EK Quantum Surface P120M Rads + Barrow 3-in-1 Block, Res & Pump.

Spare - Corsair 250D - Intel Core i7 8700k - Gbyte Z390 I Aorus Pro Wifi Mobo - 16GB Ram - GTX 980ti - 256GB Samsung NVMe - BeQuiet P11 750 PSU - CPU cooled with EK Coolstream S240 + S120 Rads + EK Pump / Res Combo

Annex - Corsair 280X - Intel Core i7 4790k - Asrock H97M ITX Mobo - 16GB Ram - EVGA GTX 1080ti - Corsair SFXL600 PSU - CPU + GPU cooled with triple EK Coolstream S240s + EK Pump / Res Combo

NAS PC - Fractal Node 804 - Intel Core i7 3770k - Asus P8Z77-M Mobo - 16GB Ram - MSI GTX 1660 Ventus - Corsair AX850 PSU - Unraid 21TB Storage Server

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Extension AV Setup - Sonos ARC + Sub (Gen 3) - LG OLED65C6V + Sonos Amp - 5 x Monitor Audio C265s